Equality, Diversity and Human Rights at County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust

 
County Durham and Darlington Foundation Trust (CDDFT) is committed to providing the best service for patients and to be the employer of choice for staff. 

In order to do this we embrace our Public Sector Duties to: 

• Advance equality of opportunity
• Eliminate discrimination, harassment and victimisation
• Foster good relations between groups of people 

This commitment is made across all the protected characteristics recognised under the Equality Act 2010 which are: Age, Disability, Gender, Gender Reassignment, Marriage and Civil Partnership, Pregnancy and Maternity, Race and Nationality, Religion and Belief, Sexual Orientation. 

To view our report on how we are  meeting our Public Sector Duties, click here. 
(Please note this report will be reviewed once we have completed our analysis against the NHS Equality Delivery System).

Equality, Diversity and Human Rights are central to the vision, values and long-term business development of CDDFT and therefore it is important that it is mainstreamed and hardwired into everything we do. 

 Our Equality Strategy 2011  replaces our previous Single Equality Scheme and is our public commitment of how we plan to meet the needs and wishes of local people and our staff, and meet the duties placed upon us by the Equality Act 2010, and the requirements of the national NHS Equality Delivery System (EDS).  It also sets out how County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust recognises the differences between people, and how we aim to make sure that (as far as possible) any gaps and inequalities are identified and addressed. 

Our Strategy has been approved as a fully 'live' document, in that it will be regularly reviewed and strengthened. Therefore we are very interested in your views and feedback on our Equality Strategy.  In particular we would like to know about any areas where you feel we can improve our services to you as either a services user, carer or relative of a service user, stakeholder or an actual or potential employee of our organisation. 

To ensure that we are making continuous improvements and delivering on our commitments we have an Equality, Diversity and Human Rights Steering group which meets regularly to review our progress.  

In addition, we also produce:

• an  Annual Report 2010-2011  to celebrate the hard work and innovation that has been put in place to make our services and organisation a fairer and better place for all. 
• an Annual Workforce Monitoring Report 2010-2011  to show our policies and practices are being applied in a fair and consistent manner.

If you have anything that you wish to feedback to us about any of the above or if you would like to contribute anything to the ongoing development of our Equality Strategy please contact:

  Jillian Wilkins, Equality and Diversity Lead

Telephone: 07500125160
email: jillian.wilkins@cddft.nhs.uk

 In October 2010, the Trust held two consultation events to showcase the work done to make County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust a fairer place to work and receive healthcare and treatment.  The events were also used to gain feedback on what we should be doing better and where our priorities needed to be focused. 

The consultation report and summary report outlines the details of the events and the feedback received. 

 Since the October events the Trust has been working hard to address the issues raised in the consultation events.  The update report shows our progress to date (Aug 2011).